[quote=“HighOctaneLove”]
Here in Queensland, Australia, the registration system is based on the number of cylinders the car engine has. This makes owning a large capacity 4 or 6 more attractive than the same sized or slightly larger 6 or 8 (or 12!).[/quote]
These are both good points… We have yet to see how the varying registration taxes affect our ability to sell cars…
[quote=“HighOctaneLove”]From this list a correlation can be drawn that when overall capacity is similar, engine technology and tune are the major factors in an engines power and torque figures, not the friction caused by the design. In my personal musings on this subject I’ve come to the conclusion that the size of the cylinder determines the engine characteristics. So for a given engine capacity, the engine with smaller, more numerous, cylinders will feel smoother but will have the subjective feeling of needing to be revved harder to produce meaningful acceleration.
I’ve personally driven a 2L Inline 6 and numerous 4 cylinders of around the 2L mark and this has broadly been my experience in real life conditions. All my data is subjective so feel free to flame me on any bits you don’t like/agree with! 
[/quote]
Good points again, although I would add that some engine configurations are smoother than others… For example a 2L I6 would likely be smoother than a 2L V8 because the Inline 6 has perfect primary and secondary mechanical balance without the use of balance shafts. I4’s will always be a bit rough regardless of size because they don’t have overlapping power strokes. Even with balance shafts they won’t be as smooth as an I6, or V8 for that matter…
I also agree more or less that the added friction from say a 2L DOHC V8 doesn’t cause it to lose power compared to simpler 2L DOHC I4, however it should affect the fuel economy more than It does in automation…
Currently the fuel economy calculations seem to be mostly based on the fuel system components, and how low you can get your RON requirement. This means that the more carbs(or more barreled) you throw on an engine the better fuel economy it gets. Later on its a little more balanced with less options on fuel injection systems but still the most fuel efficient engines always seem to be V8s…
This problem is also compounded by the fact that not only will that V8 have better fuel economy, but it will have a much better torque curve and thus the car will have a much higher tameness… What this will lead to is small V8’s being the economy car engine of choice in automation.
A good comparison for fuel economy between 2 similarily powered and weight cars would be the Lancia Thema 8.32 with its 2L 32v DOHC V8 to a Saab 9000 with the 2L I4 turbo… Both based on the same Chassis, but the V8 Thema gets a fair bit worse fuel economy. (17.5L City VS 12.3, 9.2 highway VS 9.0)… Even the later 9000 Aero with 10 more hp and 300cc’s of extra displacement over the Lancia got better fuel economy.
There aren’t very many other small V8 engined cars out there, so more comparisons are hard to make…